Hope.

At the end of my year on YMT (2021 in case you’re interested) my Team ran an Encounter Night. The crux of the night was a reflection on our identity. For context, we spoke about how names in the bible have great importance and when someone encounters God in a new way it often comes with a name change that better captures their identity or purpose – think Simon to Peter (meaning the rock) or Abram to Abraham (Father of many). The reflection was about offering our identity to God, asking for a new encounter with Him and through that a deeper revelation of who we are in His eyes (we are made in His image and likeness after all). In essence, we were asking God to reveal to us new names that better captured our identity in Him. For me, the result of this reflection was one word – one name – that kept coming to mind…… Hope.

You see, looking back throughout the year (I didn’t realise it at the time), one bible passage kept coming up: Romans 5:1-5

“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Romans 5:1-5

Suffering - Endurance - Character - Hope

Let’s start with everyone’s favourite: Suffering

One image that’s often used to describe Hope is the light at the end of the tunnel (I’ll be coming back to this fairly often so take note). You see, while it can often be a very poignant image it requires one sad reality: You have to be in the tunnel.

Suffering is the catalyst for Hope. Rain is only a symbol of Hope when there’s a drought, Food is only a symbol of Hope for the starving, the Red Sea cannot be parted without there first being slavery in Egypt (I’ll be coming back to this too). Suffering plays a huge role in the Christian life. Jesus even pushes us to embrace our suffering saying, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24). St Paul in the above quote even goes so far as to say that we should “rejoice in our sufferings.”

In my own life, I’ve been able to pinpoint a distinct challenge for every year since 2017. These challenges have ranged from struggling to find friends, to the consequences of COVID-19. Each year, I’ve been given a different suffering which has started that year’s journey of hope.

What is the suffering in your life? What challenges and difficulties do you face right now?

Own these things. Be present in the tunnel. We are not a people of delusion. We recognise the suffering in our lives, but we don’t make it part of our identity. Instead we do as Christ instructs us: We take up our cross and move onto step 2 of hope……

Step 2: Endurance

Aaaaah…... Now we get to the real meat of what it means to hope.

We’ve taken up our cross and now we must follow Jesus. Endurance is the action of Hope. If the light at the end of the tunnel is really hope, it must drive us to walk towards it.

Endurance is hard. It takes place amidst suffering and is how we overcome it. It’s hope’s response to suffering. However, we are not meant to endure alone. The Bible is full of hope - stories of characters who endure through suffering with the help of their God. We’re able to see endurance in the stories of Joseph, Job and Daniel amongst countless others.

A great example of Endurance can be found in the Israelites’ escape from Egypt. The escape begins with the closing of the Red Sea on the Egyptians, cutting the Israelites off from their suffering in Egypt. Despite escaping slavery, their suffering is far from over – they still face 40 years wandering the desert. Throughout this God is a constant Presence, leading them in the form of a pillar of cloud (or fire at night), providing them with sustenance and protection, and dwelling amongst them in the Ark of the Covenant.

This is how God helps us endure. He helps cut us off from our old way of being and leads us to embrace a new life with him, sustaining and protecting us throughout. (Ephesians 4:22-24) This is fulfilled in a particularly beautiful way through the Eucharist as the Blessed Sacrament allows for our very selves to become God’s dwelling place, the new Ark of the Covenant.

I’ve experienced God’s sustenance throughout my life in different ways. When I was struggling with friendships, God became a comforting Presence, and I could find peace in the knowledge that God’s unconditional love would always be there for me. During lockdown, God worked through the people around me, journeying with me in the shared experience of loneliness and isolation.

Endurance is the process of journeying through the desert with God. It is both a gruelling and difficult task but also an experience of intimate encounter. It requires that you trust that God is bigger than any obstacles that might get in your way and that ultimately you will end up in a better place.

How does God support you in times of suffering? How do you encounter him in a way that helps you endure?

Enduring is hard. Luckily Christ’s yoke is easy, and his burden is light. Allow him to take up your load and lead you through the suffering.

And finally…… Character

If you’ve ever been camping, you would know the experience of arriving at a campsite at night only to wake up the next morning to see what looks like a completely different place in the daylight. You are seeing the same place with a new appreciation of what it really is.

When we finally emerge from the tunnel into the light, we are graced with a greater appreciation of what we have hoped for; what was originally just a light transforms into a world of colour and life. We emerge from endurance with a greater appreciation of what we hoped in.

This begs the question: What do we hope in?

Well to quote Psalm 146, “Happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God”.

We hope in God. We hope in His love and the magnitude of His being. We hope that one day we will be able to become united with Him in Heaven. This is the light at the end of the tunnel towards which we strive: The one true God.

Every time I look back on each year of my life since 2017, I’ve marvelled at how God has brought me through it. I’m always so grateful for the way He journeys with me (even when it doesn’t seem like it at the time) and strengthens me to become more and more like the son He created me to be.

When we have endured through suffering, we come out with a greater appreciation of who God is. This new appreciation of God affirms His image inside us and strengthens our character. This is our identity: Sons and Daughters of God made in His image and likeness. To hope is to become a closer image of what God created us to be.

Looking back on your life, how has God firmed your identity in Him? How are you different as a result of God’s work in your life?

Take time to be grateful for these things. God is working wonders in you, and this is just the beginning

Hope does not disappoint

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. The gold highlights the cracks where the pottery originally broke making it more beautiful than before it was broken. This is the essence of Hope. Suffering breaks us (if it didn’t it wouldn’t be suffering) but when we fix our eyes on God and endure, He pieces us back together. When we are pieced together, it’s God who shines through the cracks (much better than gold I reckon), not just strengthening us but allowing us to be a vessel through which others can see Him too.

This is why hope is so important! We are born as broken people in a broken world. Throughout our lives we are in a continuous cycle of being broken and fixed by God. This is not a reason to despair! Each time we are broken is an opportunity to be pieced together with more gold – to have our character strengthened into a clearer image of God, less clouded by sin and brokenness. This is why St Paul says to “rejoice in our sufferings” because suffering comes with an opportunity to hope!

Looking back, God has used my life to bless the lives of many people around me. Not because I’m special or amazing, but because I am broken. Each year God has taken my suffering and turned it into something great. This is why I chose Hope as my name. This is why I now dare to approach every day with the simple yet dangerous prayer, “Lord challenge me today.”

We are all called to hope. Hope is not a wishful feeling, nor is it a delusional reaching for things we can’t grasp. Hope is a lived reality. When we hope, we meet God where we’re at and ask Him to lead us to a greater encounter with Him. When we hope, we witness to the transformative power of God.

So I’ll leave you with the words of St Paul, “and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

My challenge for you today?

Hope.

Hope-for-Young Australians

SAY HELLO ON OUR SOCIAL PAGES!